arch_8ngel

Any of the classic-era RPG manuals that had "adventurer's guides" I loved as a kid.

I'll give it an 8/10 for how influential it ended up being - though the original game is pretty basic. I got my copy from the Nintendo Power promotion, and I wore out the folds on the pack-in materials and the maps for Dragon Warrior 2. DW2 is probably my childhood favorite RPG -- with the added party members and the ship (I found the general world exploration of DW2 to be more fun, generally, than FF1 -- but that is another one that I read the strategy guide for until the pages fell out!) My dad and I played DW1 and DW2 together quite a bit, back then. And the DS releases became his go-to Father's Day gift for a number of years. Currently having a lot of fun playing DQXI with my kids, after having replayed DQ1 and DQ2 on the Switch earlier in the year.

What do you mean by that? I'm genuinely curious. Not sure I would view it as "snobbery" to seek out the most effective versions of the vaccine, if that's the "vaccine tourism" you're referring to.

It isn't really that simple. The virus only mutates with hosts. The longer it sticks around, the more breakthrough cases can happen, which in turn can allow the virus to mutate in individuals who are already vaccinated. Unvaccinated people having a surge in cases in bad for EVERYONE.

Yeah -- I was on the fence. But being a cheapskate about it, as well, favored the mid tier model (totally adequate for my needs from a space perspective -- and if I am bothered by it later I can just upgrade the disk drive then)

sure. doesnt mean he isnt explicitly killing bad guys, though...

Which guy? Travis? I mean, at best, he's definitely an anti-hero, because he isn't just a vigilante, but full-blown crazy to where his lines for who he thinks are bad guys could get pretty blurry pretty quick. Basically -- he is like a more-realistic version of The Punisher, but with potentially poorer target discernment and serious mental health problems.

In fairness to Nintendo, at least among my friend group it was a matter of Sony winning converts with the stronger RPG offerings of the PS1 (after SNES had made such a strong showing on that front in the previous generation only for N64 to completely drop the ball) along with other new titles of that era like MGS and Resident Evil.

It's like "reverse Taxi Driver". Travis in Taxi Driver has a similar psychotic break, but he's a vigilante "hero" rather than a villain...

Went ahead and made the pre-order for the mid-tier system (the top-end system isn't a bad deal -- just would rather have the option of getting it in Q2 vs Q3)

How many of these do you think they need to sell for it to be considered "successful"? I would put that number WAY lower than a traditional console cycle sales figure -- since "success" here doesn't carry all of the baggage of getting game developers along for the ride (because they are already there, designing PC games that are available on Steam). I do suspect that the expectation here would be "most" buyers picking this up as a 2nd system, with the same use case I have in mind (i.e. convenient PC gaming on business travel). And another significant segment of buyers are looking at this as a dedicated micro-PC (which may end up being my use case, as well, if the device is as flexible as is being discussed). Then again -- marketed correctly as a "console" -- you probably could chew into the non-Nintendo market a bit, since XBox and Playstation don't have portable equivalents, and there is a lot of library cross-over. All that said -- I really do wish something like OpenPandora had managed to be a more viable concept for a pocket-able PC-type device. At the end of the day THAT is the form factor I really want (something that evokes the old-school HP Palmtop).

If you follow sites like Liliputing then you'd know there is a lot of pent up demand for a major company providing a device like this at a good price point. (and look back for when Dell debuted a test device - a handheld XPS machine - with a hypothetical $1k price point, and how much excitement that had) There are a number of Chinese-mainland companies that have been iterating similar devices, as well as mini-laptops with built-in game controls for a few years now. Nothing comes close to this price point. And nothing comes close to the level of hardware and customer-service support you would hope for and expect from a major western company like Valve.

Conversely - I think their success will 100% depend on them marketing this as a handheld PC provided by a western company with western-expectations of customer service, support, and device security -- and providing that at a near-console price point. There are about 5 years worth of dubious Chinese-origin devices from 3 or 4 manufacturers that FUNCTIONALLY do the task of the Steam Deck -- but: 1) you're dealing with the total black hole of customer service directly with a Chinese-mainland company 2) you're dealing with the total unknown of device "security" expectations of direct-manufacture Chinese electronics 3) you're paying full-blown laptop prices (devices tend toward the $800-$1200 price point) Having the steam deck come from a major western company (and all that this implies) at a console-like price-point is a HUGE DEAL to PC gamers looking for a lighter-weight travel device (or even a non-TV couch-device, for when you want to play a PC game but not sit at a desk or use the main TV with Steam on an HTPC.

You don't need bundle deals from Steam to hit dirt-cheap sales a couple times per year. Classic-style CRPGs (both dungeon crawlers and iso-style) have essentially zero footprint on consoles of any generation. (with the exception of that one series of dungeon crawlers on DS -- though those were ultimately quite a bit grindier than they needed to be) Also, classic 4X games are generally the territory of PCs. (and Master of Magic has a new release coming out) Oh, and the other pretty-much-PC-exclusive are true-Roguelikes (ADOM, DoomRL/Jupiter Hell, etc). Though those are quite a bit trickier to configure for controller-based play given the keystroke command complexity. Most of the indie games that have made it to consoles, though, I generally prefer in their PC incarnation, as the platform that is a lot more straightforward for the devs to keep updated. But beyond all of that -- for pretty much anything cross-platform, i would usually rather own it on the PC to know that I'll definitely be able to play it far in the future, versus the perennial uncertainty of any digital releases on console platforms. I get a console like the Switch for the console exclusives, not anything cross platform

The games themselves (for any of the 1:1 indie releases) are going to be consistently cheaper on Steam given the much greater propensity for deep-discount sales on the platform (or for those of us with massive Steam/PC back-catalogs). Though most PC "exclusives" tend to favor a mouse and keyboard. The Steam controller navigates some of that surprisingly well -- so if that functionality makes it to the "Steamdeck", that will be nice to be able to play more portably. It's going to come down to how flexible the software is, out of the box -- since there is a pretty big difference between the level of gaming flexibility you get from a traditional Windows configuration, and whatever Steam supports via their Linux options. That may still provide decent DosBox access to play GOG releases -- but will need to wait and see what gets done with it, and what "more traditional" PC games can be played (i.e. thinking of classic CRPGs, for instance, many of which have nothing close on any console from any generation). Kind of silly to frame this whole discussion as some kind of console-war, though. People that play any variety of PC games can be interested in having genuine attention given to portable gaming hardware without it taking anything away from console gaming. This thing wouldn't replace the specific games I want to play on the Switch, for instance -- but it would give me some selection of my PC games to take on flights or trips without needing to lug along a second laptop (or own a 2nd Switch).

It sounds silly, I know -- but I fully expect them to jump on that bandwagon and point those QR-codes (or whatever they use) directly to NFTs in some way.

I would be willing to bet that the security-tags on the WATA cases act as a big distinguishing factor, and may have implications related to a spin-off NFT marketplace.

The interesting thing about this purchase, to me, is wondering about how the math is going to work out for Wata, given that their backlog on grading is all pre-paid activity to where "the work" of doing the grading and the explicit cost of return shipping are all going to be liabilities on their books. (and where that backlog of work really offers no clear projection on unpaid "new work")

Definitely tempted. I've watched the various Chinese micro-gaming-laptops for the last few years -- but aside from the demo unit Dell posted a couple years ago, this is the first one that looks like it has any chance of having meaningful customer support. Also the price is nuts. Stupidly cheap for a small gaming PC.

Feel free to be legitimately excited about shaving 10-20 years off of your "financial accumulation" phase of life.

"Eh" not "Aye" -- he isn't Scottish

To spite you, I'm going to design a game where you ONLY die on "Bonus Stages"

I mean, i don't want to delve into your particular palate on this front, too deep -- but if you like the taste of urine / ammonia, I'm sure century eggs "can be nice in the right way"... But that isn't really my fetish, so i can't say that I care for them, or could really imagine any way of meaningfully improving their taste.

In that case -- for this game / stage -- it is obviously just mislabeled in some way. But to the larger argument -- "true" bonus stages just mean an extra stage in the game (i.e. you get access to more game "for free" which is your bonus). More game is always good, so even if you can die in-game, it is still a genuine "bonus" in the literal sense.

Century eggs are pretty awful by themselves -- I can't imagine that they are improved by adding them to a pizza.